Happy Campers
by Areneth
Summary: Yet another shuttle chase starts the chain of events that make the daily existence in D quadrant so interesting. How will the boys cope with girls out of the action for a while... WIP


Sacajawea, one of Voyager's two remaining shuttles was being chassed, again.

Despite the danger, captain Kathryn Janeway found that the she was feeling, predominantly - annoyed. She did nothing to hide the fact. This was just as good since her chief engineer couldn't be bothered with anything at the moment.

"Try it now!" B'elanna Torres shouted over the engine noise from the aft compartment. She had moved their once they realized they would not reach the safety of Voyager in time without some engine modifications.

"Point o five!" Janeway shouted back. She could hear B'elanna swearing in Klingon. It usually meant bad news, most often, for the engines. It was followed by a loud clank and some more swearing.

"Now?"

"1.2! That should do it."

Muttering, B'elanna made her way back to the cockpit.

"Just once, I'd like to see this bucket of bolts make it back to the ship in one piece." she said plopping down in her seat.

"I second that. Do you realize this shuttle has never left the shuttle bay without crashing, burning or just plain refusing to function properly? If I didn't know better I would say it was cursed."

"After spending so much time in this godforsaken quadrant I'd say anything is possible." B'elanna growled.

"Where is Chakotay anyway! We should have reached them by now."

"I'm reading the ship on short range sensors; we should be in transporter range in less than two minutes."

Janeway said checking her console. "Let's hope we can outrun the storm till then." The com system crackled.

'Voyager to Sacajawea.'

Janeway could tell Chakotay was not a happy camper.

"Sacajawea here. It would seem we won't have time for docking commander. Are the transporters operational?"

"For the moment, Carey says he can't guarantee their condition once the front hits. We will reach transporter range in 47 seconds." They both knew it would be a close call.

"Fine, initiate engine lockdown once you transport us over. We'll sit out this storm if possible." She knew Chakotay had most likely already made all the preparations, but still...

"Aye capt..n." The proximity of the storm was degrading communications." Tra..po.ter ra..e ...fiv...t.o ". Janeway felt the familiar tingle of the transporter and then Sacajawea was gone.

------------

On Voyager's bridge, commander Chakotay was pacing. He had been against the away mission in the first place but Janeway and Torres had overruled him. The ship supplies of deuterium were getting low and the third moon of an uninhabited planet system looked promising on long range sensors.

Voyager herself could not detour to check the moon. She was scheduled to dock at the P'ray docking facility for system maintenance.

It would have been a low risk mission, one Chakotay wouldn't have objected to, had it not been for the ion storm approaching their designated coordinates. The storm wouldn't affect the shipof Voyager's size, much. A shuttle was a completely different matter. Unfortunately Kathryn had set her mind to it and there wasn't much Chakotay could do to change her mind. He had settled in the end for sending B'elanna with her in case of trouble.

Bad idea.

They had finished the maintenance and departed P'ray only to reach the rendezvous coordinates and find no trace of Sacajawea. He knew he should have seen it coming. They had yet to launch the blasted shuttle without it encountering trouble.

At the moment, he cursed his weakness wishing he had stood his ground. He stopped and turned towards the ops station where Harry Kim had been trying to reach the two for the past hour.

"Any luck Harry?"

Kim didn't even raise his eyes from the console.

"I've got them on sensors. They are flying at top warp trying to evade the wave front. We should reach them in five minutes."

"Damn."

Tuvok raised his eyebrow slightly. He was for once in agreement with the commander.

"Chakotay to engineering."

'Carey here sir.'

"Status!"

' The shield modifications are in place sir. They are fully loaded and working at 109. We should be fine sir."

"Carey, what's the status of transporters?"

'They are online now sir, but my guess is they'll shut down the moment the storm hits. There's not much we can do about them till it blows over.'

Double damn.

"Try to rig the transporter to extend its range and keep it working as long as possible. We'll need it in about four minutes."

'Aye sir.' and Carey was off.

"Tom, initiate engine lockdown as soon as we've got them onboard." it was standard procedure. He knew Tom would have done it without his orders. He turned back to Kim.

"Harry beam them directly to sickbay just in case. We won't have transporters for a while."

'Carey to bridge, transporters are at 120. It's as far as they'll go without blowing up.'

"Good work Carey."

"Harry open a channel."

"Opened."

"Chakotay to Sacajawea." he sent a small prayer to the spirits.

'Sacajawea here. It would seem we won't have time for docking commander. Are the transporters operational.' He thanked the spirits.

"For the moment, Carey says he can't guarantee their condition once the front hits. We will reach transporter range in 47 seconds."

They both knew it would be a close call.

'Fine, initiate engine lockdown once you transport us over. We'll sit out this storm if possible.'

Harry looked up from his console .

"Communications are degrading commander."

Chakotay nodded. "Aye captain. Transporter range in seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Shields! "

Harry was working furiously on his console. It seemed to Chakotay it took longer than usual, but it was to be expected.

"They are in sickbay." Harry said finally cracking a smile.

Chakotay returned it gratefully.

"Shields in place, engine lockdown in progress. The storm will reach us in 15 seconds." Tuvok reported.

'All hands, brace for impact. The storm's about to hit.'

Everyone gripped their console as the timer hit zero. The ship shook for a few seconds until the inertial dampeners compensated for the change. Then everything was quiet again.

"Report."

"The shields are holding."

"Transporters offline, we have lost primary power on decks seven through ten. Several minor casualties reporting in. Hydroponics is running on backup battery. Astrometrics is offline. Inertial dampeners have failed on deck 5 section 34 beta. Repair crews are on it."

Tuvok droned on listing all the failures, none of which were critical. Chakotay used the opportunity to check the sickbay report on his console. He was relieved to see that "both patients were ready to be discharged". They would be fine and most of the ships systems would be repaired by the time the storm dissipated.

'Commander Chakotay report to sickbay.'

Chakotay's heart missed a beat.

"Chakotay to sickbay. Doctor what's going on?!"

"They are fine commander. However there is an... issue I need to discuss with you as soon as possible. And please bring Mr. Paris with you. Sickbay out."

Chakotay's heart resumed beating. An issue? What was it this time. Was Kathryn refusing treatment - again.

"Tuvok you have the bridge. I'll be in sickbay. Tom you're with me."

Waiting only long enough for Tuvok to acknowledge his orders Chakotay set off towards sickbay with Tom hot on his heals.

--------------------

It was an unusually quiet ride with both of them running the possible scenarios in their minds. Once the lift doors opened they set off at a brisk pace, almost running to sickbay. Whatever it was that Chakotay had been expecting it was not the sight that greeted him upon his arrival to sickbay.

Chaos, there was no other way to describe it. A dozen or so crewmembers were milling around trying to settle down, nursing various injuries with ice packs

and dermal regenerators. The noise level was significant to say the least. With everyone talking, moaning and sighing it was quite difficult to isolate Doctor's nasal tones. Paris switched to his medic mode figuring that was the reason doctor had called for him.

Chakotay moved deeper into the chaos stopping to speak with some of the crew.

Ensign Wildman pointed him towards the auxiliary lab. When he asked about the captain she looked a bit confused but replied that the captain and B'elanna were with him. Chakotay didn't have time to analyse her reaction. He squeezed his way past the Doctor's office and entered the lab.

The EMH was running scans on a patient on the main biobed. A mighty distressed patient if the sounds coming from the person were any indication. Chakotay reached him in two hurried steps only to realize that there were two patients on the biobed. In fact there were to infants crying with all their might and a mighty confused doctor trying to comfort them while at the same time performing the scans.

The Doctor turned to face the commander, immensely relived that there was someone willing to help.

"Thank god you are here commander I can't make them stop crying."

He took one of the infants;

"Here you take her; maybe you'll have more success than I did." With that he turned to the other child and resumed his scans.

Chakotay took the child gently into his arms and started murmuring comforting noises. The little girl stopped crying almost instantly and looked curiously at him. That's when the commander noticed that the child looked familiar to him.

The smoky dark blue eyes under long eyelashes looked at him expectantly. Soft auburn tufts of hair framing her little face and the crooked smile was enough for him to make the connection.

He felt his knees go weak. Were it not for the fact he was holding a baby he was sure he would have fainted.

"Kathryn?" he somehow managed to whisper.


End file.
